Reflection on the Message of October 25, 2003

WITH MARY, ON THE WAY OF CONVERSION AND HOLINESS

"Dear children! I call you anew to consecrate yourselves to my heart and the heart of my Son Jesus. I desire, little children, to lead you all on the way of conversion and holiness. Only in this way, through you, we can lead all the more souls on the way of salvation. Do not delay, little children, but say with all your heart: “I want to help Jesus and Mary that all the more brothers and sisters may come to know the way of holiness.” In this way, you will feel the contentment of being friends of Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of October 25, 2003

---

Today also, in this message, Mary, our Mother, pours out her heart full of love through these simple words. It is almost impossible to express in the words all that Mary, as a Mother, feels towards us who are her children. She wants us to be holy, which means happy, normal and healthy people. Only this is worth to be, only for that to fight with all our strength.

The desire and the prayer of Jesus and Mary are addressed to us, here and now, through Our Lady’s message. I would dare to say that Our Lady implores each one of us to begin finally to believe that God wants our good, that He loves us. God does not love only the good ones and the holy ones, but also wicked people. The problem is that all do not respond to this love. Without love, human life on earth is difficult and almost impossible - not only without the love of God, but also without human love, without human warmth, comprehension and goodness. We could not live if we had not received this love from our very birth in so many ways and in so many occasions. Love is the ground, the soil on which we can lean our life. It is the fundamental condition of life for all.

Every human being asks: “Does God love me?” If it is true that He loves me, and if I allow this truth to enter into my heart, into my thoughts, into my feelings, if I allow it to overwhelm my whole life, then my life becomes different and more beautiful. Unfortunately, there are so many negative experiences, so many experiences of evil and wickedness, which tell us the opposite and put on trial our faith in the love of God, in the love that was proved to us by Jesus and His own life. Jesus himself experienced infernal wickedness, but He did not refrain from men or from His love for men. God did not spare His own Son Jesus in order to convince us that we are loved. He allowed Himself to be crucified so that we may realize what God is ready to do for us. As for us, we should answer to the truth of this event with trust. If we respond with faith to the love of Jesus, we become eternal and indestructible.

St Paul says: “The Son of God loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Ga 2,20) Jesus loved us all with a human heart, not with a plastic heart, but with a heart that feels suffering, pain and joy, that feels all that we feel. There is no human feeling that Jesus did not feel; he felt them all, except sin.

In the heart of Mary, the desire to take us on the way of conversion and holiness does not vanish. Since the moment when - through the apostle John - Jesus entrusted each one of us to her, “Woman, behold your son!”, Mary is a Mother who does not give up, who is not afraid of such a heavy and responsible task: to lead us on the way of holiness towards God, towards life, and not just any life, but life in fullness.

"Do not delay", Mary warns us, because a waste of time is also a loss of grace. Jesus and Mary need us, they need you and me, so that the others also, all of them, may reach life, may reach God. The one who has made the experience of the love of God cannot remain passive and uninterested in all those who have not yet made this experience. The love of God cannot be kept for oneself; one cannot take pleasure in it alone. It wants to be given to all, so that all may experience it, seek it and desire it with the whole heart. Each Christian is a missionary there where he lives, for people whom he meets and who surround him. Let us not become weary and let us not stop on the way on which calls us Mary, our Mother.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, October 26, 2003